Utility vehicles, such as, for example, lawn and garden tractors and mowers, have traditionally relied upon internal combustion engines as the prime mover transferring power through mechanical linkages. However, electric drive utility vehicles have emerged as viable alternatives to internal combustion utility vehicles, particularly due to rising oil and fuel prices. Such vehicles employ electric power supplies to provide power through controller assemblies to one or more electric motors that may be used to propel the vehicles and/or power auxiliary equipment, such as a cutting blade on a lawn tractor. These controller assemblies not only act as energy conduits, but also incorporate logic to analyze various inputs and determine various outputs. All of these functions generate heat, which must be dissipated to prevent damage to controller assembly components. With the advancement of electric drive utility vehicles and their functionality, demands on controller assemblies continue to increase. As the controller assemblies handle more input and generate more output, they also generate more heat, which presents problems in the area of temperature control.
One solution to these problems is to increase the size of the controller assembly. A larger controller assembly has a larger heat-absorbing housing to act as a heat sink. In addition, a larger controller assembly provides more space for separating the various internal heat-generating components needed to provide the increasing levels of functionality. However, increasing the size of the controller assembly also increases material costs and consumes more vehicle package space. Thus, the challenge is to maximize heat dissipation while maintaining a minimally sized, compact controller assembly design. This disclosure is directed to addressing this challenge, as well as others, in the general area of controller assembly package and design.